2002: The FNAL Finale

In which this event-filled year at Fermilab is reviewed from best to verse

by Mike Perricone

‘Midst green and red,this time of year we muse on old and new,
And toast to those,both far and near,who shaped Two Thousand Two.

The prairie winds sweep Fermilab,from gray skies snow is falling,
But finishing the High Rise fix means no more concrete spalling.
Securing floors,repairing joints,the scope of work was numbing,
But now at last the job is past —they even fixed the plumbing.
Through windows clear the light now bathes the Atrium’s plants and vines,
And yet we look back fondly on Elaine McCluskey ’s signs.

The Tevatron began the year with prospects somewhat dimming,
But picobarns began to build and optimism’s brimming.
The aid of friends, when sought, arrived with verve and generosity,
As other labs lent skills to help set record luminosity.
On Steve Holmes’ door the message left priorities undoubted:
“If it ’s not about Run II,I will not talk about it.”

Experimenters cried,“Results!” They hoped the time was nearing.
At ICHEP-Amsterdam came word: The data’s now appearing!
At DZero and CDF, the top quarks started flowing,
The W and Z were there; B mesons,too, were showing.
Discoveries will spring from these and some could be quite newsy
Like new dimensions,strings,or just perhaps a hint of SUSY.

A half a mile below the ground in Soudan, Minnesota
The MINOS crew was out of view, but cared not one iota.
They worked away, both night and day to keep the job in line
To host a dedication in July down in the mine.
Neutrino hunters came and went by deafening elevator,
They’ll look for oscillations first; the mass,they’ll add up later.

MiniBooNE worked night and noon with unremitting toil
To fill their new detector with the purest mineral oil.
The tank topped off, the horn tuned up, they started taking data.
Two Thousand Two was great, they say, but next year will be greater.
And should events in coming months reveal a fourth neutrino,
To all of them at MiniBooNE we’ll lift a glass of vino.

And by the way, we saw the wine return to wine and cheese.
Computing also made a splash: four hundred new PC’s!
Their value goes unquestioned as a Run II data tool,
But CD’s running question was,“How do we keep them cool?”
Some questions also rose on FERMINEWS’s predilections
For getting NuTeV wrong until Bob Bernstein sends corrections.

TD’s tests of quadrupoles in supercold revealed
These magnets bound for Switzerland are leaders in the field.
Both Fermilab and CERN took note of student Robert Lee:
From US CMS he earned the group ’s first Ph.D.
We raise a cheer to all our grads,to docs both pre-and post-,
They persevere to the nth degree and that ’s what means the most.

A special Yule acknowledgement that’s both sincere and cheery
For insight on what lies ahead from Astro and from Theory.
Auger and Sloan, CDMS seek cosmic perturbations;
The third floor’s constant ponderers are framing explanations
Of Space, and Time, and Nature’s puzzling ways, both seen and un-;
That stillness means they’re up there writing papers by the ton.

The year brought several changes in the lab’s administration
Did anyone lose track of them? Well, here’s the information:
Computing head is Vicky White,Kephart leads TD ’s teams,
And Roger Dixon gets the nod to take control of Beams,
Holmes regained the second floor,across from Hugh Montgomery,
At Ops.Support,Jed Brown assumed command —that’s it in summary.

Some special names will come to mind as ’02 fades from sight:
We twice misspelled Tom Nicol’s name —this time, we ’ve got it right!
To Helen Edwards came a most deserving new award
In the name of Robert Wilson, so it struck a poignant chord.
We lack the space to tell the tale of each retiree:
Can Halbert Landers stand for all (years service:33)?

It takes a laboratory to pursue a physics mission,
Like everyone who staffs a desk, and every skilled technician;
Like shipping and receiving, and the staff in the library,
The always-ready firemen and folks who tend the prairie.
The ones who cook the lunches and the ones who swab the decks;
And let us now praise URA, the ones who sign the checks.

A treasured friend took leave of us, forever may our bond
With Andy Mravca’s legacy reflect in Andy’s Pond.
But somberness was not his way, so raise a glass with cheer
To toast success throughout the lab, for all the coming year.
With stockings hung by old and young we share our hopeful visions:
Dear Santa, all we want this year are particle collisions!